View source for SubStation Alpha

{{Infobox file format
| name          = SubStation Alpha
| icon          = 
| logo          = 
| screenshot    = Capture d'écran de SubStation Alpha.png
| caption       = Screenshot of SubStation Alpha Tool for edit subtitles
| extension     = .ssa, .ass
| mime          = 
| type code     = 
| uniform type  = 
| magic         = 
| owner         = Kotus
| type          = [[Timed text]]
| container for = 
| contained by  = 
| extended from = 
| extended to   = 
| standard      = 
| released      = Before {{Start date and age|1996|11|23|df=yes}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Sub Station Alpha |url=http://www.eswat.demon.co.uk/substation.html |website=Kuts and Sub Station Alpha |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970203214435/http://www.eswat.demon.co.uk/substation.html |archive-date=3 February 1997}}</ref>
| open          = Yes
| free          = Yes
}}
'''SubStation Alpha''' (or '''Sub Station Alpha'''), abbreviated '''SSA''', is a [[Engineering:Subtitle (captioning)|subtitle]] [[File format|file format]] created by CS Low (also known as Kotus) that allows for more advanced subtitles than the conventional [[Software:SubRip|SRT]] and similar formats. It is also the name of the popular, now discontinued tool used to edit subtitles.

This subtitle format is frequently used in anime fansubs, either to overlay subtitles onto video while it is being encoded (hardsubbing), or to store subtitle data alongside video data, often in a [[Matroska]] (MKV) container (softsubbing). It's not commonly used professionally except by [[Company:Crunchyroll|Crunchyroll]].

The current version of SSA is v4.00. There are many freeware and open source subtitling applications that support the SSA format.

==Principal sections in an SSA subtitle==
A basic SSA subtitle:
<pre style="overflow:auto;">
[Script Info]
; This is a Sub Station Alpha v4 script.
; For Sub Station Alpha info and downloads,
; go to http://www.eswat.demon.co.uk/
Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion - Episode 26 (neutral Spanish)
Original Script: RoRo
Script Updated By: version 2.8.01
ScriptType: v4.00
Collisions: Normal
PlayResY: 600
PlayDepth: 0
Timer: 100,0000
&nbsp;
[V4 Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, TertiaryColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, AlphaLevel, Encoding
Style: DefaultVCD, Arial,28,11861244,11861244,11861244,-2147483640,-1,0,1,1,2,2,30,30,30,0,0
&nbsp;
[Events]
Format: Marked, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:01.18,0:00:06.85,DefaultVCD, NTP,0000,0000,0000,,{\pos(400,570)}Like an angel with pity on nobody
</pre>

==Advanced SubStation Alpha==
'''Advanced SubStation Alpha''' ('''ASS''') is a script for more advanced subtitles than SSA. It is technically SSA v4+. It is able to produce anything from simple texts to manual graphic editing used in karaoke. There are few programs designed to create these scripts.
The main feature of ASS is it has more specifications than normal SSA, like in styles programming.
For example, the above script changed into ASS:
<pre style="overflow:auto;">
[Script Info]
; Script generated by Aegisub
; http://www.aegisub.org
Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion - Episode 26 (neutral Spanish)
Original Script: RoRo
Script Updated By: version 2.8.01
ScriptType: v4.00+
Collisions: Normal
PlayResY: 600
PlayDepth: 0
Timer: 100,0000
Video Aspect Ratio: 0
Video Zoom: 6
Video Position: 0
&nbsp;
[V4+ Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, OutlineColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, Underline, StrikeOut, ScaleX, ScaleY, Spacing, Angle, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Encoding
Style: DefaultVCD, Arial,28,&H00B4FCFC,&H00B4FCFC,&H00000008,&H80000008,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0.00,0.00,1,1.00,2.00,2,30,30,30,0
&nbsp;
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:01.18,0:00:06.85,DefaultVCD, NTP,0000,0000,0000,,{\pos(400,570)}Like an Angel with pity on nobody\NThe second line in subtitle
</pre>

==Software support==

===Authoring software===
{{main|Software:Comparison of subtitle editors}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Title || Platform || License || Notes
|-
| [[Software:Aegisub|Aegisub]] || Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || Focused mostly on typesetting.
|-
| Gaupol || Linux and Windows || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || Has partial support for Sub Station Alpha and Advanced Sub Station Alpha subtitles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.gna.org/gaupol/ |title=Gaupol Subtitle Editor |publisher=Home.gna.org |date= |access-date=2010-08-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20090304133231/http%3A//home.gna.org//gaupol// |archive-date=2009-03-04 }}</ref>
|-
| [[Software:Gnome Subtitles|Gnome Subtitles]] || Linux || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || Built-in video preview, times synchronization/shifting, translation, spellcheck, subtitle merge/split.
|-
| Jubler || Java || {{Free|Free and open-source}}<ref>{{cite web |title=teras/Jubler |url=https://github.com/teras/Jubler |website=GitHub |date=23 December 2021}}</ref> || Splitting, joining, time shifting, translation mode, styles (in SubStation or SRT formats)
|-
| Kainote || Windows|| {{Free|Free and open-source}}<ref>{{cite web |title=bjakja/Kainote |url=https://github.com/bjakja/Kainote |website=GitHub |date=19 October 2021}}</ref>
| Translation mode, subtitle comparison, audio spectrum / waveform with karaoke autosplitting tool
|-
| Sabbu || Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || Focused mostly on timing. Abandoned since 2013.<ref>{{cite web |title=sabbu |url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/sabbu/ |website=SourceForge |language=en}}</ref>
|-
| Sub Station Alpha || Windows || {{Nonfree|[[Freeware]]}} || Outdated and no longer developed.
|-
| Subtitle Composer || Linux || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || Supports SSA/ASSA formats, text style and colors, unsupported SSA styles are ignored.<ref>{{cite web|title=Subtitle Composer|website=[[GitHub]]|url=https://github.com/maxrd2/subtitlecomposer|accessdate=25 November 2013}}</ref>
|-
|[[Software:Subtitle Edit|Subtitle Edit]] || Linux and Windows || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || Supports 250+ subtitle formats, translation, audio waveform preview
|-
| Subtitle Processor || Windows || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || Unicode is supported from version 7.7, UTF-8 is preferred, other encodings are internally converted to UTF-8.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sourceforge.net/projects/subtitleproc/ |title=Subtitle Processor &#124; Download Subtitle Processor software for free at |publisher=Sourceforge.net |date= |accessdate=2010-08-19}}</ref>
|-
| Subtitle Workshop || Windows || {{Nonfree|Freeware}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw |title=URUWorks - Subtitle Workshop |publisher=Urusoft.net |date= |accessdate=2010-08-19}}</ref> || Apparently abandoned.<ref>{{cite web |title=URUWorks - Subtitle Workshop Forum |url=http://forum.uruworks.net/ |website=forum.uruworks.net}}</ref> Not recommended because it is not a fully dedicated SSA/ASS editor, because it doesn't follow the strict rules about SSA subtitles, and it erases any style put in with another program.{{fact|date=December 2021}}
|-
| VisualSubSync-Enhanced || Windows || {{Free|Free and open-source}}<ref>{{cite web |title=VisualSubSync-Enhanced |url=https://github.com/Red5goahead/VisualSubSync-Enhanced |website=GitHub |date=16 December 2021}}</ref> || Forked from VisualSubSync, which was abandoned in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visualsubsync.org/ |title=VisualSubSync |publisher=Visualsubsync.org |date=2010-04-18 |accessdate=2010-08-19}}</ref>
|-
| Subtitled Pro || Android || {{Nonfree}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Subtitled Pro |url=https://subtitledpro.com/ |date=27 January 2022}}</ref> || A mobile subtitle editor app that supports importing, exporting, converting, editing, and hardsubbing of SSA/ASS files and other formats.
|}

===Subtitle encoding software===
Software tools to encode subtitle files into video containers (mkv, mp4, mov, ...):

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Title || Platform || License || Notes
|-
| [[Software:FFmpeg|FFmpeg]] || Windows, Linux, Mac OS || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || FFmpeg can also encode and convert subtitles in video containers including 'Subtitles Character Encoding Conversion' for plaintext files and special characters<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ffmpeg.org |title=FFmpeg |publisher=ffmpeg.org |date= |accessdate=}}</ref>
|-
| iSubtitle || MacOS || {{Nonfree|Freeware}} || Encoding of soft subtitled movies for Apple gears<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bitfield.se/isubtitle |title=iSubtitle |publisher=bitfield.se/isubtitle |date= |accessdate=}}</ref>
|-
| [[Software:HandBrake|HandBrake]] || Windows, Linux, Mac OS|| {{Free|Free and open-source}} || HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform video transcoder<ref>{{cite web|url=http://handbrake.fr |title=HandBrake |publisher=handbrake.fr |date= |accessdate=}}</ref>
|-
| [[Software:MKVToolNix|MKVToolNix]] || Windows, Linux, Mac OS, BSD, OpenIndiana || {{Free|Free and open-source}} || MKVToolNix is a collection of tools for the Matroska media container format. See also '''[https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvmerge.html MKVMerge]''', a part of MKVToolNix, which is often used to attach/merge subtitle and/or audio files to a video file.
|-
| XMedia&nbsp;Recode || Windows || {{Nonfree|Freeware}} || XMedia Recode is a free All-In-One video converter and audio converter tool<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xmedia-recode.de/download.html |title=XMedia&nbsp;Recode |publisher=xmedia-recode.de |date= |accessdate=}}</ref>
|-
|[https://subler.org Subler]
|Mac OS|| {{Free|Free and open-source}} 
|Subler is an open-source GPL-licensed for the MP4 media container format. It is used to attach/merge subtitle and/or audio files to a video file.
|}

=== Players and renderers ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Title
! Description
|-
| [[Software:Avidemux|Avidemux]]|| [[Open-source software|Open-source]] video editing and processing software product
|-
| [[Software:DirectVobSub|DirectVobSub]] || a [[Software:DirectShow|DirectShow]] codec for displaying SSA subtitles in Windows Media Player or other Directshow player (there is also a fork of it called xy-VSFilter).
|-
| [[Software:DivX|DivX]] || The proprietary DivX Plus software supports this subtitle format<ref>{{cite web|title=DivX Plus Software|url=http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/player|work=DivX.com|publisher=DivX, LLC is a subsidiary of Rovi Corporation|accessdate=11 November 2011}}</ref> 
|-
| [[Software:GStreamer|GStreamer]]|| Open-source multimedia framework that supports SSA subtitles through its plugin architecture
|-
| [[Software:HandBrake|HandBrake]]|| Open-source video transcoder (video converter) that can process SSA subtitles (either soft-subbing or hard-subbing them, depending on the user's preference)
|-
| KooRaRoo Media || A media server and organizer for Windows. Supports rendering external subtitles as SSA on devices that don't support external or embedded subtitles.
|-
| [https://github.com/libass/libass libass] || Open-source library used by [[Software:Aegisub|Aegisub]], [[Software:Avidemux|Avidemux]], [[Software:GStreamer|GStreamer]], [[Software:HandBrake|HandBrake]], [[Software:MPlayer|MPlayer]], Totem, [[Software:VLC media player|VLC media player]], XBMC, and many other open-source programs to render/process SSA subtitles
|-
| Media Player Classic Home Cinema<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/History.html|title=Changelog · MPC-HC}}</ref> || Open-source self-contained media player for Windows
|-
| [[Software:MPlayer|MPlayer]] || Open-source media player that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, BeOS, Syllable, [[Software:AmigaOS|AmigaOS]] and [[Software:MorphOS|MorphOS]]
|-
| [[Software:Mpv (media player)|mpv]] || Open-source media player that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and *BSD; originally forked from MPlayer.
|-
| [[Software:PS3 Media Server|PS3 Media Server]] || Media server that works with [[Engineering:PlayStation 3|PlayStation 3]] systems (has some bugs with some effects)
|-
| Totem || GNOME's default media player that can render SSA subtitles via [[Software:GStreamer|GStreamer]]
|-
| [[Software:Universal Media Server|Universal Media Server]] || Media server that works with DLNA, UPnP and HTTP/S-capable devices
|-
| VideoPad || Video editing program from NCH Software that support .ssa subtitles<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/subtitles.html|title = How to create and edit subtitles with VideoPad}}</ref>
|-
| [[Software:VirtualDub|VirtualDub]] with the ''subtitler'' or ''textsub'' filters<ref>[http://www.virtualdub.org/virtualdub_filters.html VirtualDub Filters]</ref> || Open-source video capture/processing utility for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows platforms 
|-
| [[Software:VLC media player|VLC media player]] || Open-source media player for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, [[Software:FreeBSD|FreeBSD]], [[Organization:OpenBSD|OpenBSD]], [[Software:Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]], [[Software:BeOS|BeOS]] and [[Software:Syllable Desktop|Syllable]]
|-
| [[Software:PotPlayer|PotPlayer]] || Media player for Windows, with a huge number of features and customizations, allowing screen recording, podcasts, and many user friendly shortcuts including global hotkeys
|-
| [[Software:Kodi|Kodi]] (formerly XBMC) || Open-source cross-platform Media Center program
|-
| xy-VSFilter || a [[Software:DirectShow|DirectShow]] codec for displaying SSA subtitles in Windows Media Player or other Directshow player, included in the [[Software:Combined Community Codec Pack|Combined Community Codec Pack]] and the [[Software:K-Lite Codec Pack|K-Lite Codec Pack]] (it is a fork of [[Software:DirectVobSub|DirectVobSub]])

|}

==Further reading==
*{{cite web
 |url = https://www.matroska.org/technical/subtitles.html#ssaass-subtitles
 |title = SSA/ASS Subtitles
 |work = Matroska.org
 |publisher = CoreCodec, Inc
 |accessdate = 8 October 2020
}}
*{{cite web
 |url = http://www.perlfu.co.uk/projects/asa/ass-specs.doc
 |title = Sub Station Alpha v4.00+ Script Format
 |author = Kotus
 |accessdate = 11 July 2010
 |format = Microsoft Word Document
 |date = 18 February 2002
}}
**[http://moodub.free.fr/video/ass-specs.doc moodub.free.fr Mirror]
*{{cite web
 |url = http://docs.aegisub.org/3.1/ASS_Tags/
 |title = ASS Tags
 |work = [[Software:Aegisub|Aegisub]] Manual
 |publisher = aegisub.org
 |accessdate = 25 March 2014
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Substation Alpha}}
[[Category:Subtitle file formats]]

{{Sourceattribution|SubStation Alpha|1}}